Hanukkah Lamp

The excavations in ancient Roman cities like Pompeii and Herculaneum that took place in the mid-eighteenth century created excitement and wonder among the general populace. They also provided symbols of the power of ancient Rome and its emperors with which newly created rulers like Napoleon identified. These factors stimulated a return to more classical compositions and motifs in the decorative arts, after the elaborate and busy scrollwork of the Baroque period. In this lamp, created at the beginning of the nineteenth century, we see the symmetrical arrangement of columns and staircases, as well as the medallions, garlands, and flowers that were characteristic of the Neoclassical style. A wonderful three-dimensionality is obtained by the freestanding columns and the "descending" railing.
The creation of this lamp in 1803 coincided with the year when a Jewish community was established in Augsburg for the first time since the Middle Ages. From the fifteenth until the beginning of the nineteenth century, Jews were only permitted to visit Augsburg during the day, for business purposes. Despite this ban, Jews commissioned a considerable number of ceremonial objects from Augsburg silversmiths throughout the course of the eighteenth century. These Jews probably lived in nearby towns where Jewish settlement was permitted.